Cognitive Processes

The History

In the 1920s, the idea of personality type was being explored by leading scientists and philosophers. A Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung, wrote Psychological Types during that time, in which he gave a detailed description of what has now become one of the most widely used typologies in the world.

In the 1940s, Isabel Myers began developing a self-report questionnaire-the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® instrument-that could help people find where they fit in Jung's theory. The use of this instrument has led to an almost universal understanding that there are sixteen basic personality types, each of which can be "named" by a four-letter personality type code.

Two Worlds

Jung first noticed that people seemed fundamentally different in terms of whether they were more extraverted, oriented to the external world of people and experiences outside themselves, or introverted, oriented to their internal worlds of thoughts, ideas, feelings, and memories. Then he noticed more differences in terms of what people were doing in each of those worlds. These he called "functions." They are now thought of as cognitive processes.

Functions-Cognitive Processes

Using metaphors for names, Jung described two kinds of cognitive processes-perception and judgment. Sensation and Intuition were the two kinds of perception. Thinking and Feeling were the two kinds of judgment. He said that every mental act consists of using at least one of these four cognitive processes. Then he described eight personality types that were characterized by using one of the processes in either the extraverted or introverted world; extraverted Sensing types, introverted Sensing types, extraverted iNtuiting* types, introverted iNtuiting types, extraverted Thinking types, introverted Thinking types, extraverted Feeling types, and introverted Feeling types. He also suggested that these processes operate not just as the dominant process in a personality but also in other ways.

The Instrument

As Isabel Myers and her mother, Katharine Briggs, began to craft a self-report instrument, they faced several challenges. They had to take what Jung had seen as an integrated whole personality pattern and try to figure out how to ask questions to get at that whole. They chose to focus on Jung's notion of opposites and force choices between equally valuable psychological opposites. They also added a dichotomy to help reveal the type pattern. The result was sixteen types, each indicated by a four-letter code such as ENFP or ISTJ.

Type as a Whole Pattern, Not Just Four Letters

The purpose of this website is to help you understand how the type codes represent patterns of how we use the eight cognitive processes-extraverted Sensing, introverted Sensing, extraverted iNtuiting, introverted iNtuiting, extraverted Thinking, introverted Thinking, extraverted Feeling, and introverted Feeling.

Extraverted
Sensing: Experiencing the immediate
context; taking action in the physical
world; noticing changes and opportunities
for action; accumulating experiences;
scanning for visible reactions and
relevant data; recognizing "what
is." Noticing what was available,
trying on different items, and seeing
how they look.

Si

Introverted
Sensing: Reviewing past experiences;
"what is" evoking "what
was"; seeking detailed information
and links to what is known; recalling
stored impressions; accumulating data;
recognizing the way things have always
been. Remembering the last time you
wore a particular item or the last
time you were at a similar event-maybe
even remembering how you felt then.

Ne

Extraverted
iNtuiting: Interpreting situations
and relationships; picking up meanings
and interconnections; being drawn
to change "what is" for
"what could possibly be";
noticing what is not said and threads
of meaning emerging across multiple
contexts. Noticing the possible meanings
of what you might wear: "Wearing
this might communicate "

Extraverted Thinking: Segmenting;
organizing for efficiency; systematizing;
applying logic; structuring; checking
for consequences; monitoring for standards
or specifications being met; setting
boundaries, guidelines, and parameters;
deciding if something is working or
not. Sorting out different colors
and styles; thinking about the consequences,
as in "Since I have to stand
all day "

Ti

Introverted
Thinking: Analyzing; categorizing;
evaluating according to principles
and whether something fits the framework
or model; figuring out the principles
on which something works; checking
for inconsistencies; clarifying definitions
to get more precision. Analyzing your
options using principles like comfort
or "Red is a power color."

Fe

Extraverted
Thinking: Connecting; considering
others and the group-organizing
to meet their needs and honor their
values and feelings; maintaining societal,
organizational, or group values; adjusting
to and accommodating others; deciding
if something is appropriate or acceptable
to others. Considering what would
be appropriate for the situation:
"One should or shouldnt
wear " or "People will
think "

Fi

Introverted
Feeling: Valuing; considering
importance and worth; reviewing for
incongruity; evaluating something
based on the truths on which it is
based; clarifying values to achieve
accord; deciding if something is of
significance and worth standing up
for. Evaluating whether you like an
outfit or not: "This outfit suits
me and feels right."

Cracking the 4-letter Code

It is important to remember that the four-letter type code is more than the sum of four letters. It results from how we answer questions along four dichotomies, Extraversion-Introversion, Sensing-iNtuiting, Thinking-Feeling, and Judging-Perceiving. While on the surface each of these dichotomies can be described generally, they are not separate parts or traits. In the development of the MBTI, it was assumed that reporting preferences for one over the other of each dichotomy would give us an idea of the pattern of cognitive processes of the personality and thus reveal Jung's psychological type patterns. Use the following diagram to remind you of the kinds of processes and what the letters mean.

One can "crack the code" in a mechanical fashion and for some people this is necessary for them to understand how the processes are in a hierarchy.